By: Alessia Lee Chong, Sandra Awad, Mira Sayah, Natasha Sillery,
Autumn Scott, Lorraine Zhang, Wardah Malik, Asfa Shaikh

Determinism – The idea that every
human event, action or decision has
sufficient causes.
› Things happen in our lives that we have no
control over; they follow natural laws.

Freedom as a human capacity is under
attack in a number of philosophies and
theologies.
Determinism is an appealing philosophy
because as Kant said, it is difficult to
come up with a theory to explain
freedom; it is not something that can be
explained with science. Rather, it is a
practical issue.
 Key
ideas
found
within
religious
determinism are:

› Predestination
› Free will

Some churches within Christianity do not
believe in the idea of human freedom,
while others do.
› Catholicism versus Calvinism!!

Churches that believe in predestination
think that each and every action an
individual
takes
is
predetermined
knowledge of God.
› Most Christians believe in providence: God’s
influence upon events and actions.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If salvation or damnation is predetermined
at birth, is there freedom?
John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer,
believed that there was no connection
between predestination and freedom
& ethics.
 Those of the Puritan Tradition believe
that if people are cut off from God,
they cannot be saved.
 They believe that God loves and elects
some people, but rejects others.

They believe that God freely grants
salvation to those who are elected.
 Puritans believe that questioning God’s
freedom is sacrilegious.
 However, Catholics believe that human
freedom and God’s providence do not
conflict with one another.

The Catholic Church has always
struggled to maintain that humans are
free because of God’s providence.
 Salvation is God’s initiative of love; God’s
love requires and makes our cooperation possible.
 The Catholic tradition has been the
greatest defender of human freedom!

What is free will?

No denial about the fact that we have free
will.

He defines good will as a will that helps people
seek a good life.

Decide the difference between the good and the
bad when making choices.

The responsibility to make decisions based on
our conscience.

Will  Free choice.

Understanding  Knowledge.

These two elements
making a decision.

“Augustine maintains both human
freedom of the will and divine
foreknowledge of all future events.”
(Miller)
combine
when
According to you, is God the guiding or the
controlling force in an individual’s life?
 “Even
if there is free will and an
absence of any all-encompassing
deterministic fate, there can still be
"for God a certain order of all causes,"
among which causes are our freely
choosing wills.” (Miller).
Evodius asks, “Why did God give human
beings free choice of the will," given that
it enables us to sin?
 "The fact that human beings could not
live rightly without it was a sufficient
reason for God to give it” (Saint
Augustine Bishop of Hippo).

St. Augustine (354 -430) on Free Will:
“It is certain that we will when we will; but
he [GOD] brings it about that we act but
that without His help we neither will
anything good nor do it” (35).
 You are what you do!! (Like how you are
what you eat… get it? ;)

We were meant to do the actions God
intends us to do.
(life depends on FATE and free will is
limited)

You should feel that it is your
responsibility as God’s creation to do
good.

God dictates what is right or wrong (10
Commandments); it is in our character
to utilize that information to decide
between right or wrong.
Miller, Keith. “ Augustine’s Thought On
Freedom” Thinkquest (1998): n. pag. Oracle.
Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
“You Are What You Do.” In Search of the Good:
A Catholic
Understanding of Moral Living. Canada:
Canadian
Conference of Catholic bishops. 35. Print.
Thank you For listening
You are all beautiful!